Archives For collage

The Xerographic Collages of Carl Toth

August 22, 2022 — Leave a comment

A true genius and beloved educator at Cranbrook.  Carl was one of the first to work with Xerox Machines. He believed the copy machine to be yet another type of instant camera. He created an entirely new vocabulary in the tradition of the photographic collage that has yet to be equaled.  Everyone who studied under Carl walked away changed for the better. (His legendary lectures could go for six hours!) Carl has influenced an entire generation of great artists and photographers.

“A major goal of my work has been to incorporate aspects of photographic process or or phenomena as a central part of its meaning/structure. These self-reflexive elements provide a counterpoint to the connections of unmediated transcription of reality that we associate with photographic depiction”.

Artist statement by Carl via Carl Toth Monograph published by Cranbrook.

UPDATE: After years of effort a retrospective at Cranbrook has finally arrived. https://cranbrookartmuseum.org/exhibition/carl-toth-reordering-fictions/

There is still a monograph available with a forward by Donald Kuspit titled: “The Epistemophilic Instinct in Carl Toth’s Photographs.” 

Carl Toth’s artis included in collections at museums and centers including the Museum of Modern Art, The International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, The Center for Creative Photography and The Art Institute of Chicago. Toth is the recipient of three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Carl Toth passed away on August 20th, 2022

He will be sadly missed by hundreds of his students…

The Xerographic Collages of Carl Toth

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Masters Series: The Collages of Hannah Hoch

July 28, 2013 — Leave a comment

 

Known for her political charged Collage and photomontage works,  Hannah Höch appropriated and rearranged images and text from magazines and newpapers to speak about Hypocrisy the German Government of her time. As a Dadaist Höch was inspired by the collage work of Pablo Picasso and fellow Dada exponent Kurt Schwitters but only she alone could of made these distinctive works.

 

 

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David Hockney: Photographs and Polaroid Collages

July 25, 2013 — Leave a comment

Most of the big advancements in Fine Art Photography have not come from photographers but from artists using the camera (with the exception of Thomas Ruff).  David Hockney used cameras constantly in his painting and did a large number of pure photographic works as his photographic composites and collages attest. His Poloroid Portraits, melding collage, Cubist multiple view points and time, are some of my favorites images in the history of photography.

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The Handmade Collages of Franz Falckenhaus

July 7, 2013 — Leave a comment

 

 

 

Born in 1975 in Bartoszyce, Poland and currently residing in Krakow, Franz Falckenhaus studied and graduated with a degree in Information Technology and Computer related Studies. Although he never had any formal training in the arts, Franz always had an interest in photography, film, and collage.
His collage works are always composed from selected vintage illustrations and images mixed with found paper materials. He skillfully combines self-made elements such as: backgrounds, shadows, and drawings with cleverly chosen photos to assemble them all together into art.
Franz’s style obviously shows recognition of his interest and passion with vintage aesthetics. His subject matter contains a sense of humor and a certain nostalgic feel as well. Being a self-taught collage artist, he sees things a little differently.

via the artist web site

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History Lessons in Art: Kurt Schwitters

June 29, 2013 — Leave a comment

 

Kurt Schwitters called his collages Merzbilder and they are some of the best ever made….

Source: Oxford University Press

German painter, sculptor, designer and writer. He studied at the Kunstakademie in Dresden (1909–14) and served as a clerical officer and mechanical draughtsman during World War I. At first his painting was naturalistic and then Impressionistic, until he came into contact with Expressionist art, particularly the art associated with Der Sturm, in 1918. He painted mystical and apocalyptic landscapes, such as Mountain Graveyard (1912; New York, Guggenheim), and also wrote Expressionist poetry for Der Sturm magazine. He became associated with the Dada movement in Berlin after meeting Hans Arp, Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Höch and Richard Huelsenbeck, and he began to make collages that he called Merzbilder. These were made from waste materials picked up in the streets and parks of Hannover, and in them he saw the creation of a fragile new beauty out of the ruins of German culture. Similarly he began to compose his poetry from snatches of overheard conversations and randomly derived phrases from newspapers and magazines.

via MOMA

 

Merz 50 Composition, 1922
Genre: Collage
Period/Style: Dada
Location: Museum of Fine Arts Budapest

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